A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of plant husbandry and product produced thereby, as in a composition and article of manufacture. More particularly, the present invention pertains to structures for aiding in manufacturing, transporting, and installing reinforced growing media with plant roots and crowns therein. Even more particularly, the present invention relates to improvements to wildflower sod fabrics, arrays, and layouts.
B. Background of the Invention
Growing, harvesting, transporting, and planting rolls of sod per se is well known. Installation includes using large staples or stakes to secure the sod to the ground, particularly for a slope or swale.
For growing plants other than grasses, such as wildflowers, young root masses are generally not considered strong enough to harvest, transport, and install in the manner of grass sod. Thus, certain kinds of mats and rolls have been used in the seed and plant industry as a convenient device for the transport, storage, and installation of seeds and such seedlings. These kinds of products generally are prepared using a base sheet (of, say, polyester fabric), upon which the propagating medium and seeds are deposited. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,941,282, titled Wildflower Sod Mat and Method of Propagation.xe2x80x9d Sometimes a protective upper sheet or veil is positioned over the medium, and occasionally, some form of adhesive is used to bind each layer to the next, i.e., the protective covering to the propagating medium, and the propagating medium to the base sheet. The product of such an approach is something resembling a laminate.
There are a number of drawbacks to such an approach. The laminates are expensive to produce and thus are costly to the consumer; but most importantly, the laminates of the known prior art prevent root crowns from full contact with the earth below the laminates, which in turn directly effects the survivability of the seedlings.
Additionally, the staples and stakes used to secure sod to a slope or a swale do not work because the base sheet interferes with the bonding of the roots to the earth.
Alternatively, humus or mulch has been used as the propagating medium. Humus or mulch expands upon exposure to moisture, thereby breaking down the base sheet material before final installation and planting of the roll or mat. Such expansion, however, also has an additional disadvantage: the seeds and the propagating medium can be washed away from the base sheet material due to the expansion. Stitching to form layers of the protective covering, seeds, medium, and base also proved to have its disadvantages. Stitching tends to inhibit the expansion of the propagating medium, forming an irregular bottom surface and only partial contact with the earth, which again decreases the survival rate of the seedlings.
Base sheets have also been problematic. Some base sheets are completely biodegradable upon wetting, and as a result, the laminates fall apart during attempts at transporting, storing, and installing. Other base sheets are impervious to moisture, such that seed germination is inhibited by poor drainage.
Furthermore, alternative types of base sheets are impervious to root penetration, which prevents meshing of the base sheet with the seedling root mass. Therefore, the base sheet acts as a carrier for the sod, rather than as an integral part thereof.
The advent of a pervious base sheet (e.g., of polyester fabric) has partially solved the problem of integrating the root mass of the seedlings with the base sheet to form a stronger sod mat. A disadvantage of having a pervious barrier formed by the base sheet, however, is that the root crown""s of the seedlings are on one side of the barrier and only the roots penetrating the fabric are on the other side so as to ultimately come into contact with the earth. This condition adversely effects the long term survivability of the seedlings sod matrix, by the loss of winter hardiness from exposing the root crowns to the elementsxe2x80x94with a general decline in seedling vigor, which eventually results in plant death.
Another disadvantage is that the base sheets (and other such structures) are not biodegradable, so that a subsequent planting requires removal of the base sheet or other such structure.
The laminates have been formed in a container, such as a plastic tray, to produce mats with a homogeneous mixture of seeds (wildflowers). See again, U.S. Pat. No. 4,941,282, titled Wildflower Sod Mat and Method of Propagation.xe2x80x9d But the use of trays is not helpful for large commercial applications.
For such commercial applications, where transporting the seeds and media are not an issue, seeds have been held in place by applying a web, net, or blanket over the seeds. This approach is encountered in erosion control.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method, composition, and article of manufacture for growing plants such as wildflowers to produce young root masses that are strong enough to harvest, transport, and install in the manner of grass sod.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for making and using a composition and an article of manufacture for growing plants that is inexpensive to produce and thus are not as costly to the consumer.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method for making and using a composition and an article of manufacture for growing plants, wherein the root crowns come in full contact with the earth below the composition and article of manufacture.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method for making and using a composition and an article of manufacture for growing plants wherein the composition and article of manufacture do not form an irregular bottom surface and thus completely interface with the earth, so as to increase the survival rate of the seedlings.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method for making and using a composition and an article of manufacture for growing plants wherein the composition and article of manufacture do not fall apart during attempts at transporting, storing, and installing.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method for making and using a composition and an article of manufacture for growing plants wherein the composition and article of manufacture are not impervious to moisture, such that seed germination is facilitated by adequate drainage.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a method for making and using a composition and an article of manufacture for growing plants wherein the composition and article of manufacture are an integral part of the root mass matrix.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a method for making and using a composition and an article of manufacture for growing plants wherein the composition and article of manufacture include at least one biodegradable base sheet, so that a subsequent planting does not require removal of the base sheet.
It is yet an additional object of the present invention to provide a method for making and using a composition and an article of manufacture for growing plants wherein the composition and article of manufacture include all matrix structures made of biodegradable material, so that a subsequent planting does not require removal of the matrix.
It is an even further object of the present invention to provide a method for making and using a composition and an article of manufacture for growing plants wherein the composition and article of manufacture need not be formed in a container, such as a plastic tray.
It is an even further object of the present invention to provide a method for making and using a composition and an article of manufacture for growing plants wherein the composition and article of manufacture in a combination that is not homogeneous, so as to make a garden or other pattern.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide the consumer with an improved established sod or other plant matrix, with viable germinated seedlings in an integrated fabric-like form that facilitates long term survivability, erosion control, and the establishment of structured gardens or native plant colonies as nature takes its course.
It is a further object of the present improved invention to provide the foregoing in a manner that is lightweight enough for and average person to move, yet sturdy enough to not fall apart.
It is still yet another of the present improved invention to provide a sod or other plant matrix which is capable of remaining viable after long periods of storage or transportation, and installation under a wide range of conditionsxe2x80x94including those employed for installing grass sod.
It is yet a further object of the present improved invention to provide a sod matrix which may be used to commercially propagate native prairie wildflowers, forbs, and grasses indoors or outdoors.
It is yet a further object of the present improved invention to provide a sod matrix which may be used to commercially propagate trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals.
It is yet a further object of the present improved invention to provide a sod or other plant matrix which may be used to commercially propagate structured gardens and landscapes.
It is an additional object to provide a system for commercially producing a landscape or garden design, such as, a corporate logo pattern carried out with flowers and/or foliage, transporting the design from a grower to a user""s site, and then installing the landscape or garden design in tact.
These and other features, objectives and advantages of the present improved invention will be readily understood upon consideration of the following detailed description of certain embodiments of the present improved invention and the accompanying drawings.
However, as an overview, the present invention provides a method for making an article of manufacture or composition in a structure for propagation of seedlings, for example, regionally acclimatized native prairie wildflower and native grass sod matrixes. The improvement comprises the use of a three-dimensional structural network which is formed on a sheet of a porous, preferably biodegradable textile material, combined with a growing medium made from compost and other natural and manufactured ingredients, and sown with viable seed. As in the case of native wildflower and grass seed, or any seed upon germination, the roots of the seedlings interlace between a cuspated net and the growing medium forming an integrated sod matrix. In such a fabric-like form, the sod matrix may be grown in economical units for ease of transporting from the growing location to a planting location. Thus, consumers are provided with regionally acclimatized native wildflower and grass plant established sod matrix, and with viable plants. And because the fabric substrate can biodegrade over a short period of time, plant crowns and roots are allowed to knit with the earth, improving long-term survivability of plants and fostering the possibility of creating plant colonies in reclamation and restoration of degraded ecosystems.
More particularly, the present invention includes an improvement in a method of propagating wild flowers in sod mats by steps including: providing a bottom net made of a material that is pervious to moisture, positioning a sheet of a fabric, depositing a layer of planting medium on said fabric, spreading viable wildflower seed over said medium, moistening said medium and said seeds, germinating seeds in the medium, such that roots of seedlings from said seeds intermesh with the fabric forming a sod mat; wherein the bottom net is sufficiently pervious to permit essentially unimpeded root contact with earth below the bottom net. The bottom net is preferably made of a biodegradable plastic that degrades quickly enough that a subsequent planting does not require removal of the bottom net. For example, the bottom net and the sheet of fabric can each be made of a respective biodegradable plastic that degrades quickly enough that a subsequent planting does not require removal of the bottom net.
The present invention also includes an article of manufacture for growing plants in accordance with the method. Ergo, the article includes: a top net; a bottom net made of a material that is pervious to moisture; a mat intermediate the top net and the bottom net; a three-dimensionally located net intermediate the top net and the mat; a growing medium filling interstices defined by the top net and the mat; plant roots in the growing medium; and wherein the bottom net is sufficiently pervious to permit essentially unimpeded root contact with earth below the bottom net. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the article includes, as the three-dimensional net, a cuspated net, and the plant roots include wildflower plant roots. More particularly, the article is such that the plant roots penetrate the biodegradable bottom net to contact sand below the combination, and especially such that the bottom net does not form an irregular bottom surface to completely interface with earth below the combination.
In a preferred embodiment, the plant roots form in correspondence to plants that are in a heterogeneous pattern. Preferably there is a combination of the articles, that is, including a second article, the second including: a top net; a bottom net made of a material that is pervious to moisture; a mat intermediate the top net and the bottom net; a three-dimensional net intermediate the top net and the mat; a growing medium filling interstices defined by the top net and the mat; plant roots in the growing medium; and wherein the bottom net is sufficiently pervious to permit essentially unimpeded root contact with earth below the bottom net; wherein the articles are installed adjacent each other and include a different kind of plants. Such articles can be produced at a grower location and transported to a site of installation, and wherein the plant roots include roots of prairie wildflowers native to the site of installation, forbs, grass, at least one shrub, at least one tree, perennials, annuals, or any combination thereofxe2x80x94even with spacing for such garden accouterments as a walkway, water garden, bird bath, fountain, furniture, or other commonly encountered garden apparatus or manufacture.
Ideally, though not necessarily, the article is produced at a grower location and is strong enough for transport and installation at a different location, and wherein the plant roots correspond to a pattern from different kinds of plants planted in a design. For example, the article can include a design such as a logo.